Sarasota PC Monitor
DeLorme Street Atlas USA Deluxe (10.0)
A Software Review
by S. Ali Gummin*
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.There is no question that mapping information is much in demand by many computer users. Maps were the #1 search item on Compuserve in January of this year, even before the word Lottery (which came in at #4). DeLorme (pronounced Dee Lorm) has been a leader in mapping software for a good many years now. It's the first company to offer a GPS receiver at a very reasonable cost, as well as developing their Solus program to bring mapping software to Palm handhelds. DeLorme published their first paper atlas in 1976, and expanded into computer mapping in the mid 1980's. 1991 saw the first release of Street Atlas USA in the CD Rom market. I have used this software since version 3.0 which came out in 1997. Their mapping software has historically been more accurate than the competition and easier to use. The new version 10.0 has a brand new interface and many new functions as well.
I did a clean installation of Street Atlas USA Deluxe, by pressing Ctrl, Alt, Delete to access the Close Program window, clicking on each program one at a time (except Explorer and Systray), and then clicking "End Task" to close. The installation instructions suggested this for Windows 95, but had alternate instructions using msconfig for Windows 98. I have Windows 98 on my system and the installation went very smoothly using the prior option.
The installation occurred in three parts. The first part was the Street Atlas USA Deluxe program, second the Microsoft Speech Recognition engine and lastly the Where Am I data. The speech recognition was configured during the installation and instructions were very clear, even offering a help window on what type of microphone works best for speech recognition. It did not, however, tell you where to reconfigure the software if you later decided on buying a different type of microphone. The installation menu notes that if you already have a speech recognition program loaded on your computer you do not need to install this one.
Unless you opt to put the disc on your hard drive by using the included Map Data Manager which copies the CD, you must use the Program Data disc to run the software, and it prompts you to insert it when you start the program. The interface is not what you may be used to with the commands at the top of the screen in the usual menu bar. It is different from prior versions, as well.
The commands are sorted into tabs at the bottom of the screen, and are named Find, Print, Map Files, Draw, GPS, Route, Voice, Map Display, Handheld, and Net Link. Clicking on each tab allows multiple subchoices. This command bar takes up a good deal of screen real estate, but can be reduced to less than the size of the normal windows task bar in order to see more of the map behind it. At the top right of your screen is a box with the map controls: zooming, scrolling, true north indicator, map angle, scale, and even longitude and latitude. This is a new interface which was a design of the company owner himself. I found it fairly intuitive, but spent a great deal of time in the help section.
One of the differences I had the hardest time with was saving a route. The only time a route is saved is when you are creating a new Map File, or when you exit the program, and it asks if you want to save your changes. It automatically saves your routes and names them numerically when you are working in the program, but doesn't allow you to go back and access them again in the route window.
Some of the software features include a Travel/Time planner, which provides the ability to plan scheduled stops, such as after driving for eight hours. A fuel consumption tool is also included, and will prompt users to schedule stops for refueling based on the size of their gas tank and their average miles per gallon.
Specific features of Atlas USA Deluxe include:
- Draw in routable local roads. Ability to name and search added custom roads.
- Improved interface offers a faster and smarter search engine, drag-and-drop routing, and right-click map controls.
- Multi-day Travel/Time planner
- Expanded printing options, including mural printing, for creating large poster-sized maps from everyday printers (Authors note.: It prints on only 8.5" X 11" paper)
- Faster right-click routing
- Ability to export maps to a Palm OS handheld using Solus Pro
- Receive turn-by-turn voice commands for GPS navigation.
As I frequently send maps to friends with directions from the airport to my house, that was the first route I tried. The good news is that the University Parkway extension by the airport is in this version. However, when performing different calculations for the best route, the program always took me thru a back road behind the airport, and on Rt.301 to Tallevast, in order to arrive at my home. This is neither the most direct route nor the quickest. When I typed in a via of University Parkway, it routed me to the state of Louisiana. It could not find my address with a Quick Search, but it found my development after I entered the address and zip code in the Advanced Search. Also in this version, the street into my development was named incorrectly. This is particularly odd since the prior versions had the name correct. I was able to add a map tag with the correct name of the street, but I was not able to correct the wrong name in the program. The exact placement of my house wasn't correct either and there was no way to correct that. Considering that the software supplies street maps of every locale in the country, it would be surprising indeed if there were not some inconsistencies.
The Points of Interest that are included in the program are detailed and numerous. Many local business are listed, however some are pinpointed incorrectly. Considering that businesses constantly come and go, you can't expect too much in this area.
A new feature that I really liked is named Info and included a lot of additional information. Right clicking specific areas on the onscreen map and choosing Info gave me the address, location, county, population, local radio stations with their call numbers, and more. I was also able to track a local creek, which doesn't often show up on other maps, but was included here from beginning to end. Right clicking Info told me correctly that the mouth of the creek was located in the Braden River.
I was surprised to see some of the newest developments in our area mapped out, although the new Ritz Carlton downtown wasn't shown, and these were also included correctly. If you happen to find one missing, you can use one of the most interesting features: the ability to draw in roads.
I found a small new development missing, that I know to be on Longboat Key, and I attempted to add it. It is simply a forked entry which goes around a park-like area and into one double lane road which dead ends. Try as I might, I could not draw it in the program with the proper curved and straight lines, but I did end up with a reasonable resemblance. I was able to name it and locate it on a search. This is a neat feature with a lot of potential.
The program, with all options installed, uses a significant amount of resources, and crashed my PII, 450Mhz, 128Ram system to a blue screen. After I closed some of the other programs running in the taskbar by using the close program window, it did not have a problem running. Map software is heavy on system resources, so you do not want too much running in memory in the background when you use it.
Overall, the new options are impressive and DeLorme has once again shown that they are a company with vision. Pricing and Availability (from their Website): Street Atlas USA Deluxe runs on Microsoftrr Windowsrr 95/98/2000/Me or Windows NTrr 4.0. Street Atlas USA Deluxe is available direct from DeLorme for a suggested price of $59.95. Use with a Palm OS handheld requires Solus Pro, available for an additional $49.95. Customers can purchase directly from DeLorme on its Web site at www.delorme.com or from one of its Sales Representatives at 800-561-5095. A search for best price on the Internet using CNET search and My Simon brought back a low price of $38.00 for the prior 9.0 version, but no hits for this version.
*S. Ali Gummin is a past Director of SPCUG and the owner of iTutor computer services. :
Copyright 2002. This article is from the June 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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